End of Year Wrap-Up with Dr. Pelangka

What questions or concerns do you have before school’s out for the summer? Special education advocate Dr. Sarah Pelangka helps us tie up any loose ends and concerns we may have in our kids’ education as the school year comes to a close. Watch the full video above or catch our recap of the highlights here.

For further reading on wrapping up IEPs, go here.

Lindsay Crain
Hey, everybody, welcome to Undivided Live. Today we are talking about how to close out this school year with confidence because let's be honest, we were excited to be back in person, but things were a bit of a mess this year, maybe at least for some of us (me). But we battled significant shortages of aides and therapists. Kids returned after long absences. They came, some of them with trauma and in some cases major learning loss. Teachers and counselors left in droves, we faced mandates, testing, masking, and surges, and subs became an endangered species. So as stressful as summer can be for our families, many of us are sprinting towards it. But before we hit the beach, or we hit the road, we have to wrap up the school year. And the best way to enjoy summer, right, is to know that we took care of business and set our kids up for a strong beginning of next year, at least it won't be replaying in your head. Because that's what I do if we don't.

So what do we need to do to end this year with a win, and by win, I mean not a total loss? So there might be some things that you're going to want to add to your to do list. And Dr. Pelangka here is going to help us end this roller coaster of a year with some hope, relief, and strategy. Have you had your child's IEP in the last month? Or is it coming up before the last day of school? Let us know in the chat. My family's happens to be tomorrow. So I'll send you good thoughts and I would love to have yours. And it is the end of the year IEP crunch, and we are all feeling it. So I’m Lindsay Crain and I head the content and community teams at Undivided. Today we welcome back education advocate Dr. Sarah Pelangka. I know she is feeling it, too. She is the owner of Know IEPs, has a doctorate in BCBA, and is a sibling of a sister with a disability. She's also been an incredible beacon for us this year, she has been breaking down the normal of special education and the abnormal considerations of learning loss and what we can do about all of it. We are very grateful for her guidance and knowledge today and every day. Welcome back, Dr. Pelangka.

Dr. P
Hi. Thank you, that was the most amazing intro ever.

Lindsay
Dr. Pelangka is literally out on the hills of one of her many IEPs today. So we're very grateful that she is spending that time where you know, I would probably want to be sleeping on the couch. And she's here with us. So thank you. And also with you today in the chat, we have our community manager Donna and one of our undivided navigators, Iris. They're going to be passing along your questions to us, we're going to get to as many as we can. And if you still have questions after our chat, or if you want one-to-one support, our Undivided Navigators would love to help. Check out the link that Donna shared in the chat about our kickstart, and we can tell you more about how our Navigators can support you exactly where you are.

So since many of us are facing IEPs right now, it's a good time to review what happens if we don't agree, and we can't compromise with the team. So Dr. Pelangka, what can we do?

Dr. P
Yeah, if you don't agree with any of any portion of the IEP, you know, again, California is a dual consent state, which means it requires parental consent or guardian consent. So you can always sign with exceptions. And you can agree to portions but not all of the IEP. So you just want to make sure it's clearly documented on the signature page, which portions you are not in agreement with, and then they can go ahead and move forward with the pieces that you are in agreement with. Those portions that you signed an exception would continue on as a stay put. And they would continue as the last agreed upon IEP, basically, you know, that was instated.

Lindsay
And to ask you a question that is impossible to answer for everyone: What are the chances of wrapping up these IEPs before school ends?

Dr. P
Do you mean by wrapping up coming to full agreement?

Lindsay
Sure, like, you know, many steps and due process. Obviously, if you're going all the way, that's not going to happen before the end of school, but if parents are feeling discouraged because maybe there's some things that they couldn't agree upon in that IEP, we know there are options. So I don't know, you know, there might be some parents new to this process. So if you sort of just want to touch on, like, is there hope that maybe there maybe could be some agreements? You know, depending obviously, before the end of school?

Dr. P
Yeah. So, I guess a couple of things. I think, first of all, it depends on what type of IEP meeting you're having, of course, like transition meetings are a little harder because your child's moving to a whole different schedule for the day, potentially writing certain things are going to change, no matter what, like minutes. If they're moving from elementary to middle school, just that's going to be a natural change. So of course you want to try to get those pieces hashed out if you can. Definitely, definitely demand having that transition meeting prior to the end of the year and really clearing those pieces up. The portions that aren't able to be, you know, come to agreement, that doesn't automatically imply due process by any means, like, the next natural step would be to continue to meet with the team, you know, again, maybe even a couple of times and try to come to an agreement as a team. You know, there's dispute resolution, there can be mediation, so there's definitely things that can occur prior to due process. And you know, just at the end of the year, everybody's calendars are so full, you know, the district side, my side, if you have an advocate, you know, we're all very busy. So I think you just have to kind of weigh the options, as far as are you willing to meet? If you really feel like you have to, you know, close the meeting before the end of the year, are you willing to excuse any members of the team? Is that okay, for the purposes of your child's meeting? You know, if not, and you require a full team, which is generally you know, recommended, just being willing to wait until the fall and reconvening, picking back up where you left off knowing that, you know, there's also no guarantee that the same team members are going to come back right. So the district can, of course, guarantee a service, but they can't guarantee personnel. So if your hope is to have the same people, that's never a guarantee, so it may be the case that when you reconvene, it's someone who's completely unfamiliar to your child. Sorry, my husband is here. This time, it's not a pet. It's a human. Yeah, so those are always, you know, variables that aren't necessarily in your control. But there's options. And then we'll get into assessments, I'm sure, later.

Lindsay
Yeah, yeah. And I also see that we do have a couple IEP meetings yesterday, couple next week, we have assessors Monday. So people are definitely, you know, definitely in the hot zone. So we're glad you're here. Again, throw any questions you have in the chat as we go, because we know a lot of things are going to come up. Can anything just, and again for maybe some newer parents, if you don't close out that IEP and get everything signed and sorted, can anything happen or move forward in the summer?

Dr. P
So again, I think that it's important for parents to be aware that you can agree to parts of an IEP, so particularly for transitions, like I had one yesterday where I think I shared with you, Lindsay, like the entire document is a hot mess, but we at least need to get SAI minutes and service minutes, you know, corrected on the record of change page to match the high school day. So if we can get that done, so the student can start, you know, on the first day of school, and then we're going to have to take our time and deal with the rest of it, you know, as soon as possible come fall. So definitely know that you can sign with exceptions. And the whole IEP doesn't have to be perfect in order for you to sign it, like then you're just delaying implementation of other pieces that your child could have access to.

First before summer, I think the biggest piece, you know, of course, would be ESY extended school year, if your child does qualify for extended school year, or if you believe that your child should qualify for extended school year, and that's not already part of the offer of FAPE, then that's obviously something you want to make sure you cover and you review as an IEP team before you go into summer because extended school year happens in the summer. So you have to address that. You can't wait until the fall. Definitely be mindful of that piece. And, you know, again, demand that you know if that's something that hasn't been addressed yet, your team meets as soon as possible. And another thing is oftentimes throughout the year, I'm sure parents that are on here have heard their team say, “Oh, we don't have to talk about ESY yet. We can talk about that at the end of the year.” And that's definitely not the case for this reason. There has to be enough time for you to be able to appeal that, essentially, if they are denying it. If they're waiting till the end of the year and they say sorry, we're not going to offer it and then at the end of the year, you're stuck like a rock and a hard place. So they're supposed to review those things much earlier on then like right now for that reason. So make sure that you're mindful of that. And if you hear that as a parent, you say no, no, we can talk about that now. We can go off of data from you know, of course, unless your child is in preschool and they've never been in school. I get that. And really ESY isn't a thing in preschool anyway, but school age, there should be plenty of data from the past to reflect whether or not it would be beneficial.

Lindsay
Absolutely. And actually for a preschool question. Iris was asking a question for another parent, she said, can you use stay put when transitioning from preschool gen ed to kinder?

Dr. P
So that's kind of what I'm referring to as far as transitions. I think for any transition, irregardless of what it is, preschool to kinder, elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, there's a records of change page because things don't directly transfer over. There's differences in schedules. So there's going to be differences in minutes. And those things have to be hashed out. Of course, if there's like complete disagreement for bigger reasons, like you're feeling like you want, let's say, you know, all gen ed, and they're only offering special day class, that's different. But if we're talking about, you know, going from an elementary school resource pullout model to what that would look like in middle school, I don't really think you have to do a stay put, you just have to get that piece hashed out and agree with that exception. So like, obviously, preschool minutes are going to look a lot different come kinder because it's a longer day. So you can definitely address that. And again, if there's other pieces of the IEP that there's disagreement, like sign with those exceptions, but the stay put, for the purposes of the minutes, wouldn't really work out because it's a longer day, like they wouldn't be able to match, you know, what I'm saying? They wouldn't make sense.

Lindsay
Right. Well, and as you know, as abnormal as some things have been this year, it doesn't change the fact that our kids are, they're still expected to make progress to meet their IEP goals, have appropriate and challenging IEP set for next year. But there is a unique, important consideration for families to know about. And tell me if I'm saying this wrong, but I think the learning loss mitigation funding, and this is money that is going to every SELPA in California, I think that you said right. Dr. Pelangka, can you just tell us more about it? And what do we need to know?

Dr. P
Yeah, it was per the AB 130 bill that came out, you know, over the summer, before the academic year, and there was a huge sum of money allocated for the purposes of recoupment due to learning loss as a result of the pandemic COVID-19. So, all of the SELPAs, you're right, across the state have received an allocation of money, and the amount is dependent on the number of students, and there's this whole formula, yada, yada. So $450 million was set aside to support recoupment, and then another $100 million has been set aside to support things like ADR, Alternative Dispute Resolutions and due process and whatnot. And so every district, essentially, because all districts are affiliated with a SELPA, have access to that funding.

Lindsay
And how can parents use these funds? So what does that what does that mean for families?

Dr. P
Yeah, so basically, if you believe that your child has regressed as a result of the pandemic, and there's learning loss as a result of the pandemic, essentially, due to the distance learning, the virtual learning that occurred, then you can call an IEP meeting or bring it up at your child's scheduled IEP meeting, the annual or whatnot. And, basically, you have to be able to prove, by way of showing pre-pandemic, my child was able to meet their goals, and this is the rate that they were learning. And now if we look post-pandemic, or during the year, or a year and a half, that they were, you know, learning virtually, you know, they've plateaued or they've regressed, that would serve as basically evidence to support the notion that there's been learning loss, and then the district would tap into those funds to support, you know, the recoupment of those of those skills, and then a discussion would ensue as far as how they would propose supporting that learning loss.

Lindsay
And does this have to happen in an IEP?

Dr. P
Yes.

Lindsay
Okay. So were the districts, just because I've had some questions from parents from other districts, where they supposed to be reaching out to parents or doing something to help identify families or children who might have suffered a learning loss? I mean, I know our district sent out a survey, and I remember just hearing something sort of peripherally. I didn't know. Should parents have that expectation? Or, I mean, obviously, they should, or should they just be bringing up or calling an IEP, if they've already had their IEP? If they've never heard of it, what should they say? And then at the end of the year, can they get another IEP? There was like 10 questions for you.

Dr. P
I don't know personally, if there's something that was formally pushed out saying districts have to inform parents, that's something, I mean, I can look into and I'm sure you guys can follow up with parents. But I know that, I mean I would assume it would be similar to like child find, right? It's only for students on IEPs. So it's not like you're having to find a student that has a disability. But if you're suspecting, if the team is suspecting that there's been learning loss, I mean, I think the expectation would be that yes, they would say, “Hey, by the way, did you know that there's this whole amount of money and we can offer this?” I know, for me personally, what I've seen for the families that I serve is districts, like the admins have said, we're offering like I told you yesterday, our extended school year, we've added a couple of hours. So if that's an option for you, and you want to extend the day, there's other things they've done rather than do it in ESY, they have after school tutoring, that's another model I've seen. So I've definitely seen it pushed out on the side of the districts or the LEAs and IEP meetings I've had. And I've also seen parents say, you know, what are you going to do to help? You know, I feel like there's been significant learning loss, and then they'll respond with “Oh, funny, you should ask. We have….” So I've seen it go both ways, personally. But I don't know that all families, like you said, have been educated on it. I don't think that all districts have pushed anything formal, you know, out to families.

Lindsay
And can it also include reimbursement? So, like you said, some districts have something formal that they're putting out there. And for others, you know, I've heard of families that it's like, yep, you can just, you know, here, this is how many hours you get, you can turn in your receipts, and it can be a reimbursement of education therapy, or tutoring or something outside of the district as well. Right?

Dr. P
Yeah, I haven't seen that for the recoupment piece. I've seen that for the comp ed side. I know for the recoupment, like I said, it's been something more structured that the district has established as a whole. And I've seen that across multiple districts. So yeah.

Lindsay
Not every district. So yeah, so it's worth definitely asking your district, right? You know, with everything going on.

Dr. P
I would definitely just pose the question like, how are you all meeting the needs of, you know, the students that have suffered learning loss? What does it look like? If it's something that your child needs, of course, it still should be individualized. So how are you going to meet my child's needs? And what is that going to look like?

Lindsay
And you did just bring up a really good point of if you can really articulate the difference between these recoupment funds and compensatory education?

Dr. P
Yeah, so recoupment is basically a result of learning loss due to, you know, being on the virtual learning platform and having to experience education, the manner in which it was offered as a result of the pandemic, obviously, some students didn't learn well virtually. However, the IEP was not like out of compliance, or, of course, there was a distance learning plan, whatever. Compensatory education is directly offered as a result of the denial of FAPE. So that would be if the district breached, you know, the IEP, if they were out of compliance, if they didn't offer a portion of the IEP, if they weren't following the IEP, if the IEP wasn't written, you know, according to the manner in which it should have been written, and it was missing components, those things would lead to what we would refer to as a denial of FAPE. And then they would owe the student compensatory education. Whereas the recoupment is we were following the IEP, obviously, to the best of their ability, like, of course, certain things weren't possible or feasible due to the environment, but we were doing everything that was on the distance learning plan we were doing at trying our best, it just didn't work because not all kids can learn that way. And that's just, you know, matter of fact. So they weren't denying FAPE. That's essentially the difference.

Lindsay
Got it. And since you do have to do the learning loss conversation in an IEP, the same would go for appealing because if they deny you, could you just do a typical appeal? Do IEEs come anywhere for these learning loss loss funds? If they're like, you know, nope, it's not going to apply to your child, I mean, how do we need to prepare? I know, you said we're kind of looking at the before and after. But does the process work the same?

Dr. P
Yeah, that's an interesting question. I feel like an IEE… I don't know. I think really what you need to look at is the data and look at the progress before because again, the argument for recoupment specifically isn't like the district is, you know, failing your child. They're not denying your child FAPE. It's not like, you're kind of going after the district, if you will, because of their purposeful, or maybe not purposeful, but their failure to implement. It's this just didn't work for my child, you know. So the way you would prove that, I don't necessarily think would necessarily be an IEE as much as before we went on virtual instruction, my kid was learning at this pace. They were progressing, it was working. And now, they are back to the goals that they had, you know, in first grade, when they went into this in second grade. You know what I'm saying? So it would be like a regression, a loss of skills. I mean, IEEs can give you standardized scoring. Yes. But again, what we kind of talked about yesterday is across the board, like, it's interesting, I've been kind of learning through all these triennials that are popping up, across the board, they're seeing lower scoring as a result of COVID because these kids are being compared to standardized measures for students who were the population of students that have been standardized that didn't experience COVID. So I think if we're looking at standardized assessment scores, and we're basing it off of that only, I mean, I know and IEE will also do interviews and take other things into account. But I don't think that's necessary in order to prove that there's been learning loss is my point. And I don't think standard is that standardized assessments or the scores are going to be what parents need in order to prove that their child is plateaued or has experienced learning loss, I think that you can look at the progress from prior to the pandemic, and compare that to now and really be, you know, that would be enough to prove that the pandemic is really something that wasn't beneficial for your child.

Lindsay
Absolutely. And I would love to hear if anybody has been denied, right, throw it in the chat. I mean, I haven't. I heard one parent that was denied. But then a lawsuit came up in their district for something completely unrelated, but with special education, and all of a sudden, like it was approved. So you know, it’s magic, but I would love to hear. And I see that Rita says, every time we ask our SELPA about this money, they say they're still trying to figure out how they're going to implement programs to address any learning loss. So it sounds like they're not possibly not giving those funds out yet. Can they hold on to it?

Dr. P
No, that's interesting. I think that it's supposed to specifically be for this academic year.

Lindsay
And next year? Is it two years? I think it might be two years.

Dr. P
I know for sure this year, it may go into next year. But irregardless, I mean, you need to get on the ball and that funding can only be utilized for this purpose. They can't use it for anything else. So I don't know why they would be holding on to it. It's not like it's going to benefit them in any way. I mean, the only thing I can think of is kind of what we've been going back to, maybe they just don't have the resources because of the shortages to implement anything, and they're trying to figure it out. But there wouldn't really be a rational explanation as to how that would benefit them.

Lindsay
Right. And I see Jana has this question. She said, I was told my child was not eligible for learning loss because it's not offered on his non public school campus.

Dr. P
Non public school yeah, that doesn't matter. Because if your child's attending a non public school, they're still a student of the district. So the district is responsible for ensuring that, you know, their needs are met. I mean, obviously, I don't know enough about the case to say anything specific. But if it's just on the basis of their attending non public school, that's not a reason to deny access to the recoupment funding. So again, it's very specific, this is recoupment. So it's not comp ed. So if your child during the time of, you know, online learning and the pandemic and virtual instruction, suffered learning loss, they would be able to tap into the recoupment funds.

Lindsay
And I guess that also just an important distinction, just because you get recoupment funds doesn't mean you can't also get compensatory Ed, since those are two different pots and different reasons. You can get both right, if something like happened this year that wasn't related to the pandemic but FAPE, you know, was not being carried out, your IIP wasn't, you could still get both.

Dr. P
Right. So yeah, they're separate entities. I mean, I think it would be hard to be able to tease out like, if they weren't following the IEP, and there was a denial of FAPE simultaneously, you know, I would just push for the comp Ed, because how are you going to prove the other piece right, but if they're separate, then yeah, for sure.

Lindsay
And, you know, beyond, you know, we sort of touched on due process and, you know, the learning loss, but what other IEP related tasks do we need to tie up so our child can walk into next year, like ready to go? I mean, what do we have to have? What do we have to have in place?

Dr. P
Yeah, I mean, I think we've already kind of touched on it, I think the biggest one, or the pieces that are the most important to ensure, is really those students that are transitioning, so you really want to make sure that the IEP is written to support that transition, at least at a minimum to match whatever their day is going to look like. If they're moving to a new campus, which if it’s a transition IEP, they will be. So I think that's the biggest piece. You know, everything else, like I said, you can pick back up in the fall, the ESY we touched on. Just really encouraging the team, if you have loose ends and you haven't been able to or you won't be able to complete it before the year's end, you know, make it very clear and make sure it's documented in the meeting notes that you're expecting to meet within the first however many days of the fall, you know, so that it doesn't get pushed out and pushed out even further.

Lindsay
Right. I know you touched on assessments. Did you talk about the timeline, and how many days are left this year? I think that's a really important note, I can't remember if you mentioned that before.

Dr. P
Yeah, no. So if you are in a situation where your child is in the midst of being assessed, or you have their triennial and you requested additional assessments, and there's not enough time now to complete those additional assessments, just knowing that if you request the assessment, they have 15 days to get you an assessment plan, which could put you to the very end of the year. If there's not 15 days left within the school year, they don't have to get you the assessment plan until the first day of school. But if they have to get it, if there's still 15 days left, there's obviously not 60 days left at the end of the year. So what will happen is come fall, they have to finish the assessment within the first 30 days of the school year. So it won't just continue, you know, let's say there were five days before the last day of school, it's not going to then be 55 days to match, you know, fulfill the 60 day timeline. They have to finish it within the first 30 days. So you definitely want to try to get the assessment plan, if you can, before that last day of school, unless there are some circumstances where you feel like it may be beneficial to allow the student to kind of settle in to get a valid, you know, representation of their abilities. So if that's the case, it may be worth kind of delaying it, you know, if they're gonna go to a new school, for example, and they don't do well with change, and it typically takes them a while to get, you know, settled in. Or the opposite, if they have a honeymoon period and the first 30 days is going to be great, and it's not going to truly reflect their needs, then you may want to consider not, you know, saying I think I want it documented that we're going to have this FBA, for example. But knowing you know that the first three weeks is going to be a honeymoon, we want to make sure we get the assessment plan, you know, at that third week or whatever. So it's whatever is best for that student, but things for parents to be aware of for sure.

Lindsay
Definitely. It's a really good point. And Pam had a good question here. Would showing like, if your child doesn't meet their IEP goals, would that be a slippery slope to justifying a change in placement to a more restrictive environment? Seems like that's a possibility. How would you suggest safeguarding this proof of learning loss? Like everyone versus placement? So essentially, how can they not use this information to to do something else?

Dr. P
Yeah, balancing it out. For sure. I think that's a really good point. And again, I think it just goes back to this is specific to virtual instruction. So we're not really talking about now, the whole independent study thing is a completely separate piece. And that would more, I think, fall in the violation of FAPE versus learning loss to the pandemic. So it's really looking at the time that all students were put on virtual instruction, where everything was like, Oh, my gosh, districts didn't know what to do, their hands were up in the air parents, of course, were like, Oh, my gosh, we were waiting for schools to reopen. So I mean, I definitely think the argument would never really be, oh, they didn't make progress during that crazy year and a half, let's put them in a more restrictive environment. And if that is happening, I don't think that it would go very far. I don't necessarily think any judge would be like, Yeah, you're right. But if we're talking about now, like this past year, that's a whole different conversation. And that's not really what this funding was referring to, which again is why, you know, I can revisit the timeline and see if it is extending into next year, but it was very specific for sure to this school year coming off of the virtual distance learning year that we had last school year.

Lindsay
And I'm not sure if this is directly connected to the learning loss. But let's see, Jennifer said, could be. We've been fighting for the school to help our son with homework. They say they don't offer homework help. And the response was that he no longer is required to do homework. So they just eliminated it. So I did that homework, so they eliminated it, what can I do? The amount of homework he gets will keep getting more each year. Now he'll be going into fifth grade next year, and he doesn't have the skills to do his homework independently at home. Yeah, so I don't know if that was related to like, you know, following learning loss or not. If it was, then maybe is that something that you could ask for? With that with those learning loss funds?

Dr. P
Personally, I don't feel like I have enough information to answer this specific question. There's a lot of reasons why homework could be challenging for a child. I mean, I don't think learning loss recoupment funds would specifically be used to support a student with homework. I definitely do see that though in IEPs where parents will kind of say homework is a nightmare. You know, my child comes home, and it takes us three hours, like they're just so tapped out. Of course, when kids get home, it's like they've been holding it together all day, and they get home and it's just really hard. And the schools are like, well, he's great here. I don't know what the problem is. And it's like, yeah, it's a completely different setting. And I mean, even my own son, you know, he comes home, he's not on an IEP at all and it's difficult for him because he just wants to do his thing. So I think to an extent, it's pretty typical and schools have to be more kind of cognizant of that. And it's even more challenging for kids who are on IEPs and who are holding it together all day, and they come home, and we're like, okay, now do this homework in addition to everything you did all day for the past six hours. So I mean, there's a number of a accommodations can be put in place, right? Like, for elementary school, they don't have directed studies yet. But that is something that's available in middle school, which is really helpful for students who struggle with homework where that can be their elective period, and then they do their homework in that period so they don't have to bring it home. You know, not necessarily completely removing homework altogether, but maybe doing less of it and showing that they're showing mastery of the standards, at least. I mean, it just depends on the reason, right. But there's definitely things that can be done. That wouldn't just be well, he just doesn't have to do homework.

Lindsay
Right? Yeah, we faced some of that as well. So I think that's a common thing where it might be fine that year, but then it's going to change the next year. And you don't know really how to balance it. And I know that you've touched on transitions, you know, several times. And we did have a question sent ahead of time from Ophelia. And she asked, What if you can't agree on goals and my child is starting a new school next year? I mean, those goals might be totally different than minutes, like you said, so how does that work?

Dr. P
Yeah, so that's definitely a situation in which I would make sure, I mean, services are based on goals. So I get it. Like, if you don't have set goals, then how do you derive the minutes? I would say if you can at least agree upon the areas in which goals are needed. And you have an idea of how many goals may be written. And maybe you're just not agreeing on the way the goals are written, at least kind of getting a feel for what the recommended minutes would be and trying to get that settled out and hash out the schedule. That's really the biggest piece. I don't know what grade this student is, but particularly for middle school and high school, you really want to try to have the schedule set because it's hard. If you change one period, it may change the whole day. So that's really the challenging part. If it's elementary school, it's a lot more flexible, it's not necessarily as big of a deal. If you can't agree on goal areas, then that's obviously a bigger issue because that could completely impact services all together. And that would then lead to maybe a disagreement in what classes the student should be in. So you can also request to meet over the summer. I know district staff work over the summer, it just may not be a full team, right? And so you can try to at least hash it out through an administrative amendment, if need be. Or of course, just try to hold the IEP meeting as soon as possible. That would be a situation where maybe you request to meet those few days before the first day of school with the new team or the team when they come back. So again, there's options, you just have to work with the team to kind of figure out how to move forward.

Lindsay
I think that's actually that's a perfect transition to what I was going to ask about because beyond the major issue of agreeing on what our kids need, once we arrive there, then we need to ensure that our children's teams communicate and collaborate with one another. And that doesn't always happen organically. So there's, you know, scheduling, huge caseload, lack of planning times that can make it very, you know, obviously difficult. But for kids to thrive, it's really necessary for their team members to talk and compare notes about what's working, what isn't. And so maybe just as you've found that sweet spot, right, your child's gonna move to the next class or the next school, and you're starting all over again. So is it ever possible for existing teams to meet with next year's team? And if not, like, what can parents do to facilitate some sort of passing the torch beyond just handing over this really wordy IEP?

Dr. P
Yeah, I think it's definitely recommended that this year's team meets with next year's team, absolutely. For transition meetings, that should be what's happening in the transition meeting. That's the whole point is for the current providers to pass the torch, as you said, to the new providers. If it's not a transition meeting, and it's just, you know, maybe the K through three class, and now he's moving to the fourth fifth class, and it's the same school, of course, that would actually be even easier, even switching schools, same district. That's like best practice that should be happening. If it's not happening, then that's kind of shocking. And absolutely, as a parent just request it, and you can even request to be a part of that meeting. It doesn't have to be a full IEP meeting, right, it could just be something a little bit less formal, if you're just wanting to make sure that they at least talk to one another and familiarize the new team with your child, if you want it to be very formal, and you want things documented, of course, then you would call a full IEP, which might be a little harder to fit in. But I definitely recommend having that happen.

Lindsay
Well, I know the common thing that parents hear is, and if your child is in gen ed classes, let's say like the secondary, so you have all these different teachers. But you know, I even heard this in elementary too, like we don't make our schedule until right before. So we don't know where kids are going to be because they could change, kids move in and out of the district, so we don't know numbers. So there's no way for teams to meet before the end of the year, because we really don't know like who your child is going to be with yet. So then it just doesn't happen. But maybe the beginning of the next year if it isn't possible, is it something that we can ask for? You have that written in our IEPs now for next year? I mean, I know you mentioned kind of an IEP check in, but that's not really teams kind of talking and sharing info.

Dr. P
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. If you're talking about students who are more mainstreamed in Gen Ed, you're right, they'll generally say we don't know yet. We don't know which teacher. And again, teachers can leave at any time. So even if you have the meeting before the end of the year, you don't know what can happen. So yeah, you can always write that into the IEP, you can even have it on the accommodations page so it's always there for the next year and the next year. Like do, you know, a formal meeting or an informal meeting to familiarize new teachers prior to the first day of school or within the first week of school, like, that's not really that big of a deal. But I think, again, just being mindful of teachers’ time too like, if you're expecting the super long meeting, and everyone's out there requesting it, just be mindful that they're also setting up for the new year, and they have a lot on their plate. So having realistic expectations, while requesting it, I definitely think is a great thing.

And then another good point, if they're going to have multiple teachers, it's not required to have every teacher in the IEP meeting. So you're right, they're not necessarily going to have a chance to meet every single teacher, but the case manager would be the primary, you know, person to ensure that the new case manager is meeting the old case manager, and they're having that conversation, and then the new case manager’s overseeing all these other teachers. So you know, just having that trust and confidence in that person, if you're feeling like certain teachers, because it's going to happen, it happens for any student Gen Ed or special ed, not every teacher gets your kid, not every teacher is a fit with your kid. And that's just reality. So you may have to be in direct contact with certain teachers throughout the year. And that's just, you know, going to happen. Another really strong recommendation I often give to parents is to just do like an intro letter about your child and just send it to every teacher because you aren't necessarily going to have time to meet all six or seven teachers every year but at least introducing yourself, you know, briefly introducing your child and letting them know if they ever need anything. And like these are my what my kids strengths are and I just want you to know, I think that's really positive as well.

Lindsay
Absolutely. And I was asking this question to our team, getting ready for my IEP also, because it's our first sort of, you know, it's our sixth to seventh grade. So it's kind of the first, you know, not the transition, but really like Hey, what's this middle school IEP going to be? And Lisa Carey, who's an Undivided advocate and Navigator, she said she will go and ask, like if there's one teacher in elementary, you know, but for like one to three tips like what worked working with your child, you can go to your teachers yourself outside of the IEP if they're not going to be there and say, like, what worked? Or what do you want, like my child's teachers next year to know? And then somehow include that, you know, with your IEP at a glance or your letters that you just talked about, like for the next year. I know last year, my daughter's ESY, teacher, virtual that happened to be you know, then she was her case carrier, she wrote, I didn't even ask, she wrote like a one page letter about what worked and what didn't with my daughter. And I heard from teachers, I gave that to her with that IEP at a glance, and they were so grateful to have it, because it wasn't just me saying, Hey, this is what she needs. It was another teacher. And they also knew exactly like who they could go to with questions. So might be something for people to think about.

Dr. P
Yeah, I love that. And I think to kind of piggyback on that, and take it one step further. I just had an IEP a few weeks ago, and the teacher, the case manager, actually took videos and showed them in the IEP meeting of those types of things, like things that the student does well, or certain goals that she met and showing videos of her doing it. And then you know, implementation of certain accommodations. There were so many, I mean, short clips, of course, it didn't take up like too much time. But to me, that's so much. I mean, of course, the picture, you know, speaks 1,000 words, right? So seeing the video and having having a new kind of receiving teacher be able to see that I think is really, really helpful. I was like, I wish every IEP team did this.

Lindsay
I was going to say like, what was that case carrier? She's amazing.

Dr. P
It was probably one of the best IEPs I've been in as far as seeing how they ran it. And it helped me as an advocate, because I don't get to meet every student now since COVID. So it's really helpful to see it with my own eyes. So I mean, that's another way to really help the next team.

Lindsay
Right, that's amazing. So I guess if your case carrier isn't, you can introduce your child as the parent. Right? That's awesome. I also see Andre has a question that I think is just really important, because a lot of you know, IEPS coming up, parents don't know how to do this. She just said, “Can a social emotional goal such as helping a student joining a social club be an IEP goal? And if so, where should that be included on the IEP?”

Dr. P
Yeah, absolutely. We have this goal pretty frequently for like middle school and high schoolers. That's when clubs, you know, campus clubs are a thing, not so much in elementary school, that's more like playing on the playground type goals, adult facilitated play, or turn taking, or what have you, cooperative arrangements. But joining clubs can definitely be a goal. And it's measurable by, you know, writing the goal in such a way that the student would attend the club at least once daily, usually clubs are once or twice a week, I'm sorry, not once daily, once weekly. And of course, that's something that's measurable or you can word it, you know, that they'll attend and engage in a certain amount of, you know, conversation exchanges with a peer or whatever the need is for that student. Of course, making it measurable. You can also write it that the student will create their own club, and have that be a thing, because that's definitely something that campuses are open and welcome to, and it will likely be more successful if it's something that the student is has a strength in and that they're kind of an expert in and they can you know, it's not, we call it like dual acquisitions. So if socializing is something that they're working on, and then we're also pushing them into a club that isn't necessarily something they're super into, then they're working on that too. So if like the kids into Minecraft, or certain board games, or whatever, then that will be more of like a maintenance in their repertoire. And they can show their strengths. And then they're really focusing on the social piece. So starting a club, you know, teachers are super open to it, I've seen admin be super open to it. I'm actually working in kind of consulting with our local middle school and ideas for next year here because middle school, I found, is the hardest for the social component. It's so hard. And so yeah, I think that's a great goal, you want to make sure it's on the social emotional present levels page that there's, you know, concerns in that area and that's something that you want to look into. And then again, it can be a goal or it can just be something that the team is willing to support the student in kind of navigating and you can follow up and check in. It would be a social emotional goal. And you would just go from there.

Lindsay
That's great. And yeah, I would love to know like if people's kids have started clubs, I would love to know what your what your kids have started. Yeah, throw it in the chat. And I know you've talked about ESY a couple times. But I would love for you to point out what maybe some people don't realize. Because I know I saw some questions come in before about like ESY isn't inclusive, so it's not really a placement I want my child in, but it doesn't mean you have to write off all of ESY, right? Like, what do we need to know about that?

Dr. P
Yeah, so ESY is interesting. So there's, you know, extended school year is what ESY stands for. And that is a special education service. So it's completely in terms of the SAI component, it would be comprised of students that are on IEPs only. So I actually had an IEP this morning where this came up, the student is primarily in Gen Ed and only has resource pullout. And it was kind of a discussion amongst the team, as far as would it be appropriate or too restrictive. So there's still summer school, there's still the general education option for the academic component that students would have access to like, you know, like you mentioned earlier, if the student is primarily in gen ed, and they only have resource pullout, for example, ESY probably wouldn't be the most appropriate as far as this specialized academic instruction component, but they can still attend summer school, just like any other gen ed student would, and they would still potentially, or they still could have access to their other services. And that can be the case for any student. So parents have the option to send their child to ESY. Just because it's offered doesn't mean you have to take advantage of it, it's not required. And you can take advantage of portions of it. So let's say they, you know, qualify for speech-language therapy and occupational therapy, and their SAI minutes, but you're only wanting the speech and the OT and not the SAI piece. Then you can do that, you can take advantage of that. And you can have your child attend Gen Ed summer school and also still have access to their speech and OT. So that is something for parents to be aware of that just because they don't get ESY doesn't mean they can't still tap into to summer school. And then another thing that I think most parents aren't aware of, again, came up this morning, is if your child receives ERMS or ERSES, or I think you call it ERICS in your district, the social emotional support services, that is all year long. So there is no interruption. And that's including winter break, spring break, you know, Thanksgiving break, summer break, there shouldn't be any interruption. So you want to make sure that if your child receives that intensive individualized counseling service, that you're aware, irregardless of whether they qualify for ESY or not, they're continuing to have access to that support all year round.

Lindsay
I’ll ask this last question, just for clarification, Evie said, Can we request to receive the ESY services but not take the child to the self-contained class? So it sounds like Evie that maybe that would just be the summer school option, if that was an option. Is that right, Dr. Pelangka, or you can't exchange it for tutoring or anything like that?

Dr. P
No. And again, you can't just request ESY either. I don't want to get misconstrued on that piece. It's not like every student who has an IEP qualifies for ESY, there's obviously parameters. But if your child does qualify for ESY, and the IEP team agrees, or if you have a child who is not in a self contained class, let's say they're primarily in gen ed, they're considered a gen ed student, essentially. But they have other services, you can still have the discussion of whether or not they qualify for those services for ESY, and as any other student would, they would also have the right to attend summer school options. Does that make sense?

Lindsay
Yeah. Yeah, hopefully that makes sense to you. And really quickly, I have to highlight this. Jana said her daughter started a virtual Baking Club during her year of virtual learning in seventh grade, awesome Jana! Have us all over to sample that, sounds amazing. But that’s incredible. That makes me so happy.

And another another big question that we get about summer are devices or assistive technology, any kind of equipment, whether that's, you know, standers, or iPads, Chromebooks, AAC devices, FM systems for hearing aids, can we take those home for the summer?

Dr. P
Yeah, so any assistive technology devices. The law now states as of recent that any and all devices can be taken home if it is decided by the IEP team that the student requires those assistive technological devices in order to benefit, you know, and access FAPE. So I think the most kind of common example or the one that's most often, you know, I guess, that I see in my clients would be like AAC devices, so communication devices. And, of course, the argument is, well, how can a student make progress and be a fluent communicator if they're only communicating or they only have a voice while they're at school? We can't take their voice away. So that's kind of like a no brainer. I will say it's often times presented to families that during the trial period, they're not allowed to take it home, that's definitely not true. In order for them to, again, prove that it's something that would benefit them, they should have access to it all day. So don't fall for that argument. Other things, of course, you know, would, I mean, it would be an IEP team discussion, but if an argument can be made that the student needs access to it all day, in order to access FAPE, then yes, the law says that they have to have access to it, and they can take it home. And of course, parents would then be asked to sign a waiver, right? Like if it gets broken or whatnot, that's pretty standard. But they do, students can have the right to access their assistive technology equipment at home if, again, it can be proven that they need that in order to access FAPE.

Lindsay
And then, but some of those might be limited to when they're attending ESY. And so for that month, between ESY and school, there's a chance that maybe you have to turn that equipment in at the end of ESY and you won't have it.

Dr. P
Right. And I think, you know, for that kind of gap where there is no instruction if you will, again, I as a parent, like I would just make the argument if not having access to it would cause like regression, maybe it wouldn't be the best idea to remove it, like of course having a voice. So you can't just remove a voice and say, Okay, we'll give it back to you when school starts. So I think arguments can definitely be made. I know you brought up the Chromebook. And like the example I would, you know, try to push is, you know, I know that school isn't required. But if my child doesn't continue to have frequent repetition and access, then he or she may regress. So we want to ensure that my child can continue to practice for this month, you know, there's always things like that, that you can say as a parent to, I guess, sway the district into understanding why it's a continued need. But you do have to prove you know that they need it in order to access FAPE. That's the way that the law is written.

Lindsay
Right. This actually was a good question too, Iris is saying they asked about apps. So does the same go for apps, sort of the apps they're using in school, and having access to keep working on those and sort of continuing so there's not regression?

Dr. P
Yeah, I think you would have to kind of use the same argument in order to prove that it's a requirement in order to access FAPE. That's really the piece that the district is looking at, right? Of course, any and all students could benefit from having access to things all year round, right. But at the end of the day, it's not. That's not what gen ed students are required to do. So you know, it's not to say that every parent will get access to all things all year round. But if you can prove that it's a necessity for your child to access FAPE, then it's definitely worth requesting.

Lindsay
And if you don't already have this written into the IEP, do you need to call and have like an IEP addendum, something for this assistive technology to make sure that it comes home with you? If that isn't already in your IEP, do you need to call another meeting and have that written in before school? Or maybe that's an amendment that you mentioned to where you don't have to have the whole team together if there's no disagreement?

Dr. P
Yeah, I think you're asking like before summer, if this isn't something that parents already have access to, what do they need to do? I mean, really, if there's any concern or thought that your child's device is going to be taken away, for whatever reason, you can definitely put it in writing and see what the district's response is if they're going to require an IEP meeting in order for your child to continue to have access over summer. I mean, certain things aren't like, yeah, so I think it depends on what the device is, but it never hurts to ask, and then you would just kind of go from there.

Lindsay
Right. And is there anything that we haven't covered that, you know, after the IEP is there anything else that we need to do besides like having a really nice glass of wine? Is there anything else that we haven't covered today that the parents need to keep in mind?

Dr. P
Yeah, I think the other piece we talked about, you know, when we were kind of reviewing what to cover is just the reality of the consequences and the ramifications of the pandemic and just, I know I shared with you like my reality, what I see from an advocate’s lens is you know, of course, no system is perfect, and there's definitely still flaws that, you know, the educational system needs to work on, but at the end of the day, a huge reality is staff shortages are very real right now. And it's really challenging, and you know, I work all over the state, I even work out of state. And what I see is it's happening everywhere. It's not just any one, you know, focal point. So, I know, because I just had a conversation this morning with a program specialist about this, and he kind of corroborated, that next year is only going to continue to kind of present us with these challenges. And it's really, really sad and frustrating, and I get it for the students and for parents, but I think it's something that I've never seen before, it's kind of unheard of, if you will, the amount of shortages that districts are experiencing, and at all levels, you know, aides are super, you know, challenging to come by right now. And I know they're contracting out with non public agencies, and they're even tapping out, their occupational therapists and speech pathologists were already short before the pandemic, and you can imagine how hard it is to come by those now. Teachers are quitting. You know, the learning loss that we talked about earlier, it's not just for special ed kids. I was telling you yesterday, I've gone in to see some gen ed classes, and it's just very eye opening to see how impacted students are from the pandemic. And so all of that to say, I just, I think it's going to be really challenging for the next few years. And it's going to be hard to come by, you know, staff and specialists who are experienced and who have, you know, the knowledge to support all of our students. And I think we're going to see a shift in just how… I think one positive and this is my hypothesis, my crystal ball, not readily, not right away, but I think this may kind of ignite a shift in just gen ed teacher perspectives, and how differentiated instruction is so important and kind of increasing, you know, positive behavior supports, you know, school wide and whatnot, and maybe starting to help more inclusion happen in the right way. Because there is such a variation of kind of learning loss and where students are at as a result of the pandemic across the board. So I think, long term, there'll be some positives, but I think we're going to be hit hard for a while. And it's like, we can sit here and advocate all day, but we can't create humans. So it's really hard. And even then, we don't just want bodies, right? We want people who know what they're doing, so if we're pushing and pushing and pushing, you know, well, the IEP says my student should have this, great, they're gonna fill that role, but it's not necessarily going to be quality. Because I mean, at the end of the day, they have who they have. So, you know, and then we get into comp ed and, you know, requests for combat. And I was telling you yesterday, my experience has not been the districts are denying content, but it's like, it just keeps building up and building up and building up. And at a certain point, it's not even like, a realistic number anymore. So it's just definitely a long road ahead. And I just think, you know, we have to do the best we can with what we've got.

Lindsay
Right? Like bracing ourselves right? For going into next year. And it's important, hey, if something magical happens over the summer, and that turns around, fantastic. But to have those expectations that we're not like, just going back to basics, you know, starting over like great, all this is in the past, next year is a new year, it is a new school year, but a lot of these challenges are probably still hanging around.

Dr. P
Yeah, for sure. They're very real, and it's tough to swallow.

Lindsay
It really is. I mean, it's, I guess, what can we control? Not that. So you know, we are all masters. Anyone on this call is a master of, you know, understanding that there's much out of our control, as frustrating as that is. So I mean, I guess to try to recap kind of what we've talked about is, you know, let's wrap up the IEPs the best you can, right, squeeze in that tour if your child is going to a new school or class and take pictures, talk about it over the summer. Consider, you know, asking about learning loss funds and compensatory Ed if that sounds like something that your child needs from everything Dr. Pelangka talked about today. Gather some teacher tips that you can share with the new team, maybe even with ESY teacher, grab some wine, grab some friends, you know we've almost made it, and you know, no matter what happens, we will get through it. It is a rough time to be a kid right now in school. I will say that is really, and we're not going to know, I know we talked about this yesterday as well, we're not going to really know, right? I mean, as the years go by, we're really going to be able to see what the ramifications are of all of this in many different ways.

So if you do want to have a partner with that wine, not necessarily with the wine, but with the summer, you know, our Undivided Navigators are ready to start your first boost call. We know this is difficult. And so whether you want to know how Regional Center can help support your child's summer, or if you just want to find an accessible karate camp, our Navigators can help steer you in the right direction and get you through and start getting you even prepared for next year when you're ready for that. And the best part is that you don't have to figure it out alone. So to find out more information about how you can receive this personalized support and meet your Navigator, check out our Kickstart. Donna is going to put the link in the chat. Our mission is to support you so your children can thrive and we want you to thrive too. So if you're not already a member of our Facebook group, join us this week.